Spain criticised for dragging burning ship out to sea

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/16/spain-burning-ship-greenpeace-oil

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Greenpeace has hit out at Spain’s government for towing a burning Russian fishing boat full of fuel out to sea, after it caught fire in a Canary Islands port, saying the oil in the ship that ended up sinking poses an environmental threat.

The group demanded that Spain make plans to extract about 1,400 metric tons of thick fuel oil from the Russian trawler Oleg Naydenov, which caught fire in port on Saturday and was towed to sea as a precaution.

The ship sank on Tuesday night in waters 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) deep, 15 miles (24km) south of Gran Canaria and the popular Maspalomas beach resort area.

Some oil slicks were spotted drifting south-west and away from the island, Spain’s development ministry said, and Spanish National Television showed an image of a slick it said was about 6km long.

Spain’s development minister, Ana Pastor, was on Gran Canaria to oversee oil spill monitoring efforts and the preparation of oil removal efforts if authorities decide they are needed.

The ministry said the plan it put into place to deal with oil spilled from the fishing boat was at the lowest alert level possible.

Spain was hit with heavy international criticism in 2002 after it decided to tow a leaking oil tanker away from the country’s north-western coastal region of Galicia instead of bringing it into port.

The tanker Prestige ended up breaking in half, spilling at least 23,000 tons of heavy oil that covered pristine coastline and affected beaches in France and Portugal.